The NFL delivered its customary massive audiences on Divisional Round Sunday, but both windows hit four-year viewership lows.
Sunday’s Ravens-Bills AFC Divisional Round game averaged 42.2 million viewers on CBS, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 16% from Chiefs-Bills in the same window last year (50.4M) and the least-watched game in the late Sunday Divisional Round window since Buccaneers-Saints in 2021 (35.5M). (It should be noted that each of the intervening games featured the Chiefs or Cowboys.)
Even with the somewhat surprising four-year low, the Bills’ win delivered the tenth-largest Divisional Round audience on record. (Keep in mind Nielsen did not begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020.)
It also averaged the largest audience of the NFL season, surpassing the Giants-Cowboys game on FOX Thanksgiving Day (38.8M) — no real surprise given the late Sunday Divisional Round window typically trails only the conference championship games and Super Bowl as the top game of a season.
Earlier in the day, NBC averaged a combined audience of 37.8 million for Rams-Eagles across Nielsen fast-nationals and Adobe Analytics — down from 40.4 million for Buccaneers-Lions last year.
The Eagles’ win, which peaked with 47.5 million in the final minutes, was the least-watched game in the early Sunday Divisional Round window since 2021 — when Browns-Chiefs drew a Nielsen-only audience of 34.3 million on CBS.
Through the Divisional Round, eight of ten NFL playoff games have declined from last year. That includes three of four games on Divisional Round weekend, the exception being Texans-Chiefs on ESPN/ABC.
